In 2000, 75.3% of all Arkansans 25 years of age and older were high school graduates. Only 16.7% had completed four or more years of college, up only 0.2% from 1990 statistics.
In some ways, Little Rock was an unlikely site for the major confrontation over school integration that occurred in 1957. The school board had already announced its voluntary compliance with the Supreme Court's desegregation decision, and during Governor Faubus's first term (1955–56), several public schools in the state had been peaceably integrated. Nevertheless, on 5 September 1957, Faubus, claiming that violence was likely, ordered the National Guard to seize Central High School to prevent the entry of nine black students. When a mob did appear following the withdrawal of the National Guardsmen in response to a federal court order later that month, President Dwight Eisenhower dispatched federal troops to Little Rock, and they patrolled the school grounds until the end of the 1958 spring semester. Although Faubus's stand encouraged politicians in other southern states to resist desegregation, in Arkansas integration proceeded at a moderate pace. By 1980, Central High School had a nearly equal balance of black and white students, and the state's school system was one of the most integrated in the South.
Public school enrollment in fall 1999 totaled 451,034. Of these, 317,714 attended schools from kindergarten through grade eight, and 133,320 attended high school. Minority students made up approximately 29% of the total enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools in 2001. Total enrollment was estimated at 448,018 in fall 2000 and expected to reach 465,000 by fall 2005. Expenditures for public education in 2000/01 were estimated at $2,360,599. Enrollment in nonpublic schools in fall 2001 was 26,424.
As of fall 2000, there were 128,063 students enrolled in college or graduate school. In the same year Arkansas had 47 degree-granting institutions. In 1997 minority students comprised 19.3% of total postsecondaryenrollment. The largest institution of higher education in the state is the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (established in 1871). The state university system also has campuses at Fort Smith, Little Rock, Monticello, and Pine Bluff and a medical school. Student aid is provided by the State Scholarship Program within the Department of Higher Education, by the Arkansas Student Loan Guarantee Foundation, and by the Arkansas Rural Endowment Fund, Inc.